La-D-Done!

I spent most of the day helping at a golf scramble, but knew that when I came home I only had a few more stitches to put into Quaker Alphabet. And even though I wanted to come home and take a long nap, I knew that I wanted to finish this even more:
Yay!
If you want to know...(and I think Melissa asked?), here are my fabric and thread choices:

Fabric: 28ct. Lugana that I coffee and tea dyed, using Vonna's Bake and Baste Method.

Lettering: DMC 535

Dark green: About half is stitched with Vicki Clayton Premium Hand dyed silk named Ceibo. The other half is DMC 520. If you want to use all silk, you'd need at least 10 yards. I only had 5 on hand. Personally, I loved the Ceibo and the DMC 520 wasn't a perfect match (a little too much yellow in the green), but it was the best I could do. Really - spring for the 10 yards of VC hand dyeds. I would have if I had planned to kit this up from the beginning, but this project was more about experimenting with fabric dying and using up some existing thread stash.

Light green: VC Premium silks, but I've lost the color tag. It's almost an exact match to DMC 3816. Five yards was enough.

Finally, if you want a terrific giggle, head over to read The Tale of the SAL. Tell me that's not a great post!

Ta-dah!

Stitched and finished, and in only a week. I hope my partner likes it.This was BBD's My Gift to You. I used 28 ct. linen that I had on hand. Probably ivory, and the recommended threads (mostly GAST, but one WDW).

The bow isn't attached very well. I liked the idea of putting a bow on top, but I only attached it with a straight pin, just in case my giftee doesn't want it there. It's all about personal taste, you know? If she doesn't like it, it's outta there. If she likes it, she can glue it down and make it permanent.

So - the high school awards ceremony? Happy night, let me tell you! Colleen received several scholarships and awards and we were very proud of her. Actually we were very proud of all of her friends who received scholarships and awards that night, too. We've known lots of these kids for-almost-ever, and even if your child didn't get this or that particular scholarship or award, you were happy for the child that did get it. So what did she get? Financially, I'll tell you that these scholarships should be enough to pay for books for 4 years. She's very happy about that.

But emotionally, there was one scholarship that Colleen really, really wanted, and it wasn't about the money, but because its message meant a lot to her. It was the Lauren Madison Scholarship, which has a lot of history and meaning to any Uniontown high school girl runner, and she got it. The award was presented by her cross country coach and we were all crying at the end. Happy crying though.

So, is there a chance that I'll finish Quaker Alphabet this weekend? I seem to be on a roll....I guess we'll see!

May TUSAL

I'm SO surprised that I managed to almost fill this little jelly jar this month! To be fair, I'm not a squisher. I just drop them in and let them lay. Even orts need air to breathe.

There's some red from Tree of Life, there's lots of green silk from Quaker Alphabet, and lots of tan from the BBD exchange project.

I'll probably have no time for stitching today or tonight. Boatloads of pharmacy bills have just been dropped on my desk and they all needed to be paid yesterday.

And the annual high school awards ceremony is tonight. This will be the night that Colleen finds out if she's been chosen for any of the eleventy thousand local scholarships that she applied for through the year. She's already been notified of a couple awards, but the bulk of them will be announced tonight.

I think that there should be a scholarship for Prettiest Girl in a Purple Dress Worn to Prom, but that's just me.

Anyways, tonight I'll struggle to just be quiet and wish her luck and keep all of my jangling nerves to myself. As if that's possible.

I want another weekend...

Just like the last one! The weather was very nearly perfect. I always work on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, and there were the usual household things to do, but for the most part, I relaxed. And I had some time both on Sunday and Monday afternoons to just sit on the porch, listen to the kids playing in the lake, and feel a warm breeze on my face. Oh - and I loved having time to work on this:
I may be jinxing myself by saying this, but I think I'll be finished by June 1, as long as I don't ruminate too long over how I'm going to finish-finish it.

Does anyone else have a difficult time making those decisions? I think myself into a circle, then procrastinate, then wonder why I find it laying in a drawer six month later. I'm over 50 years old now, and I've been stitching for well over half of those years, so for crying out loud, you'd think I'd have learned not to do that anymore.

As long as I'm delving into true confessions, I might as well tell you this. Now, I know I come off as being ultra-sophisticated and that you see me as one who only loves the finer things in life. So this confession almost pains me.

I love the Real Housewives series. Can't. Get. Enough. If it's on, I'll watch it. I don't care what city is involved, (although the New York ladies are my BFFs right now). I don't care if I've seen it before - I'll watch it again. It gives me great pleasure to sit in my poofy, cheap chair, wearing my pajamas that are actually old road race t-shirts and sweatpants, and maybe a cardigan if it's cold, with my bedtime bowl of cereal, and listen to their silliness. So now you know.

Finally, go over to my left sidebar and listen to Mat Kearney's "All I Have". Great stuff. I was listening to this the other day and John came into the room with his head tilted and walked up behind me and said, "Hey...I have this on my computer. That's good music."

So maybe I'm kind of cool after all. Or at least I have potential for coolness. But don't ask me to give up the Housewives.

Tantalizingly close

I am SO close to finishing this!

But I'm so crazy-busy right now. I run, work, run all day and then stare at TV for a little while at night and then I'm zonked and asleep. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to Memorial Day this Monday. The extra holiday Monday always gets me relaxed and rejuvenated.

And while I'd like to finish the Q. Alphabet, I'm going to need to spend Monday working on this for a BBD exchange that's due on....June 1!
It's "My Gift to You", and I love the colors, but I'm just a teensy bit anxious about finishing it on time. It needs to be completely finished, and I haven't figured that part out yet. Nothing like waiting till the last minute...

Well, our household will be buzzing for the next couple weeks. We've been going to lots of banquets, what with the school year winding down for Colleen and all of the end of the year awards and things. It can make for a long night, but at least I don't have to cook!

Thank you everybody for all of the sweet things you wrote about her prom pictures and for understanding my weepiness. I don't know what it was about last Friday and Saturday....It was as if I had turned a corner and understood for the first time that it was time for her to leave home. Isn't that crazy?? You prepare and plan and coach your kids through their lives to make this shift, and then it begins to happen and you want to pull back on the reins and shout STOP! I'M not ready!

Sigh...Why can't the world revolve around me?

As for the other O'Neil youngster, John leaves us on June 1. His time here at home has flown by, and we'll miss him, but I know how much he's looking forward to this experience. Did I mention that Dave and I are hoping to go visit him later in June? We've never been to California, either, so it's going to be an exciting trip for us. Definitely different...

Well, I'm going to take advantage of this cool and lovely morning and head out for a walk and maybe a run. Have a great day everybody!

Can't write a thing

Sorry. Just too weepy today. I can't even look at these without getting all choked up. I'm so proud of this kid.

Wish I had time to post more today...

but I'll be back tomorrow with some pictures of....PROM! Meanwhile, I'll pick up Colleen at 11, then we'll have a girls' lunch. Then the hairdo, then time to dress, pics at Grandma's, pics at boyfriend's, pics at school, then off to the dance.

Better check those camera batteries!

You've gotta be kidding me

I don't have much to write about today. I've been working on a motif on Quaker Alphabet and yikes, it's taking me a long time. How can something that appears to be so simple take so long? So no stitching photos will be here today.

But I came across this ridiculous bit of info on a blog by Chloe Findlay-Harder. If I have it right - she's the author of Tangled Thread, which is a treasure trove of craft and needleart tips.

So anyway, she was fashion surfing and found this little brooch.

So we're all thinking, Awwww. Cuteness! What a great crafty-gifty project for the Brownies or Girl Guides or any school aged kid. Only that she found that this "brooch" was for sale. For $188.00. Yes girls, it's actually part of a designer's spring collection.

From the website:
With its lines Moschino, Moschino Cheap and Chic and Moschino Jeans, the brand is a perfect example of a creative spirit that manages to blend irony and open-mindedness.

Riiiiight. Irony and open-mindedness. That's worth...what? The $187 mark-up? I'd get all indignant and fussy, but it's just too funny.

So, last week I ordered and received Colleen's graduation announcements! We tried to capture her "story" as much as possible, and I think we succeeded. She likes them, and that's all that matters to me. (By the way, I adore our photographer. Besides doing both of my kids' senior pictures, he helped me put together announcements for them. After 15 years of school and sport photos, you get a feel for those who are just in it for a quick buck, and those who love what they do, and Torrey Witt obviously loves what he does.)

One-way blogging

I feel very, very guilty.

Over the past few months, I've been a complete one-way blogger. I throw all of my stuff out here - all of my issues, complaints, aggravations, and even triumphs, and then never follow up on anything. You all have been so generous with your comments and suggestions, and I've been all "take, take, take". Even worse, I haven't been a very good commenter on any of your blogs, so there hasn't been much "give, give, give" on my part.

Let me tell you, those sorts of people bug the heck out of me, so now I find that I'm bugging the heck out of myself.

Looks like it's time for a Mid-Year Resolution. More commenting, less whining.

Now that that's out of my system, I wanted to follow up on a couple of things I had been talking about earlier.

First up: Tree of Life and the AVS Silk.
I took a length of that red silk and rinsed it in water, blotting it dry with a white paper towel and it didn't bleed at all. Not the tiniest bit. So I have no idea why the white floss tag in the package was stained red. Whatever - I'm not worried about the red rubbing off or bleeding onto dry fabric anymore. Looks like I made a mountain out of a molehill there.

Also, I've started U-turning my threads when I anchor them. They seem to be holding ok now, and I'll go back and pick out the areas that are coming loose. Shouldn't be too much work. Live and learn, right?

What? You want to see a picture? Well, I've tried to do my best with this, but the weather has been crappy here for days on end, and natural light has been a rare commodity.Last weekend I finished the small alphabet in the middle, the short border to the left of the "Y", and those couple of small motifs on the left.

Then I needed a break, and I know I should be working on an exchange or two, but I lovity, love, love this Quaker Alphabet by La-D-Da. Working on this is super relaxing, and it's just what I need right now. Life is so very hectic and will get even crazier between now and mid-June, so I've been hibernating in my bedroom at night and really zeroing in on this project. It's been great therapy.

Now I have to run about a hundred errands, even though my stitching is calling. Loudly! Ah well. We're all in the same boat, aren't we?